As you know Loki is my newest baby. If you don't know his background I'll share with you real quick. My husband rescued his skeleton of a mom and all 7 of her puppies from a nasty abandoned barn in Mississippi (we are from FL but my husbands jib has us traveling the states a lot).They were all malnourished, covered in fleas and mudd. So being the people we are we took them all in, in our 40ft camper, cared for them and found them homes when they were old enough. We decided to keep one ourselves, hence Loki. Now he was about 4 weeks old when we rescued them. We had noticed he had bowed legs but they seemed to straighten out a little until about a month a go. We noticed Loki couldn't walk up the stairs after running around, so we knew something was wrong. So when we came home to Florida we went to our vet. Our vet then recommended us going to see a specialist because he had some not so good things show up on his x-rays. His hips were out of place and he had some notches in his knees and they weren't aligned. Something was off. So we had an appointment at AVS (affiliated veterinary specialists) for January 2nd 2017 with Dr. Peck. Come to find out Loki has torn ligaments and OCD of the knees in BOTH of his knees. Osteochondritis dissecans, commonly known as OCD, is a disease of the cartilage that can affect various joints in dogs. In any joint in the body, two bones come together and movement is allowed between them. Instead of being attached to the bone it covers, it separates or cracks. He also has hip dysplatia and will need some work done with that as well, but that will be at a later date. They either will do an FHO or a total hip replacement.The Dr didn't go over that part as he was more concerned for his knees. As Loki is on an inflammatory and pain medicine it is hard for Loki to walk. He has a hard time getting up and just being a normal 6 1/2 month old puppy. The Dr. Said we need to get this done sooner than later because they are wanting to put a screw in both knees to level out his knee before he gets to big. He also said that this was a genetic defect and that we wouldn't have know when he was younger. So for each knee it is going to cost $3200. Totalling $6400 and that is just for his surgery, this amount doesn't cover the anesthesia, medicine,rehab, or physical therapy for afterwards. We don't normally ask for help but he is pretty special to us, especially me because he reminds me of my dog I had to put down a few years back due to neurological problems. Loki isn't just a pet to us he is our family and as we have some money saved up, we unfortunately don't have that amount at the moment. So if you can we would really appreciate if you could help our sweet boy. Also, as soon as we get 75% we are able to set a surgery date, this is a rule for the vets office. Thank you for your time and generosity.
Update 2/7: So we got through the first surgery yay! We got Loki's stitches out and arestill on some restrictions but so far so good. But we aren't in the clear just yet . We go to see Dr. Peck on Monday 2/12/2018 to get his 4 week post surgery check up and xrays done .We are hoping the screw is doing it's job in his right knee. We are also hoping we get the ok to schedule his surgery for his left knee (Loki's second surgery) .Yup remember he needed both knees and hips to be worked on meaning surgeries. It's a long process but we are doing everything we can for our sweet boy. We are still in need for his funding for his left knee surgery.
Update 4/19. Sorry we haven't posted on here, we have on his IG account. But we had our second knee surgery and our checkup and everything went well. As of right now loki has had all restrictions lifted and his knees are good to go. 2 surgeries down and another to go. We will schedule Loki's hip surgery when we pay off our balance owed for the left knee. We have received some donations from other sources so we updated the money raised. Just a little bit left to go and I can schedule an FHO on his left hip. Once again thank you all so much for helping our sweet boy. It truly means the world to us!
Update 7/25. Loki has been doing great since getting his knee surgeries. Now that he is old enough he is able to get his hips done. As of right now Loki is on inflammatory medicine and when needed pain medicine for his hips. He is able to run and play but we limit it so he isn't in any discomfort. We are almost to our goal and the remaining amount is a small balance owed from his second surgery and then the funds for his hip surgery. Fortunately our primary vet can do his hip surgery and therefore we don't have to pay a specialist costs, so it save us some! We are holding a fundraiser on Loki's IG account @loki_the_chocolatelab to raise the finds needed. Once again we thank you for your generous donations for our sweet boy. We are so so close to this sweet boy living the best life he can live!